The Great Circumcision Hoax
- cloudninechildbirth
- Apr 5, 2015
- 3 min read
What if I told you there were benefits to smoking cigarettes during pregnancy? Would you start (or continue) smoking?
Why not?
Did you know that studies have shown one benefit of smoking during pregnancy: a reduced risk of preeclampsia, which can cause severe and even fatal complications? See here, here and here.
However, as a doula, and even though it is beyond my scope of practice to give medical advice, I would always caution against smoking while pregnant because the risks, as you well know, far outnumber the benefits.
Child Circumcision: An Elephant in the Hospital
When I was pregnant with my first child, and not knowing the baby would be a girl, I was asked if I would circumcise if I had a boy. My first thought was isn’t that just what you do? Nonetheless, the question prompted a quest for information, and six years later I’m still reeling from all I have learned about this American cultural norm.
Physicians, researchers, and professional organizations like the AAP tell us there are benefits to male circumcision. Among these are a reduced risk of UTIs in the first year of life, a reduced risk of penile cancer later in life, and a reduced risk of female-to-male transmission of HIV.
However, antibiotics can treat UTIs (just as they do in girls), penile cancer is rare and a disease of the elderly, and circumcised men still need to wear a condom to prevent HIV. (Nevermind that the babies forced to undergo circumcision aren’t having sex.)
Even if these are legitimate benefits of circumcision, this is only part of the story.
Did you know. . .
Non-religious circumcision became popular in the U.S. as a means to prevent masturbation? Along with other physicians, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of breakfast cereal fame, recommended it as a preventative measure and as punishment for boys caught masturbating, for whom the procedure would preferably be performed without anesthesia. (He recommended carbolic acid for girls’ genitals.)
Circumcision is painful and can be traumatic? The foreskin must be ripped and cut away from the glans (head) to which, in infancy, it is adhered like a fingernail to a finger. Anesthesia is not always used and even when it is, it’s not 100% effective. The kind of post-operative pain medication adults would receive is not an option for babies, so the pain may continue for days, especially when the wound comes into contact with urine and feces.
Circumcision can disrupt breastfeeding? The baby is often too agitated to latch on or falls into a deep sleep, or sleep-like state, from which it is difficult to awake to feed.
The foreskin is not a useless flap of skin? It provides an immunological and physical barrier against disease and supports the growth of beneficial bacteria. It also contains thousands of nerve endings, supplies lubrication, and offers a gliding action that enhance sexual pleasure.
Over time the exposed glans becomes keratinized and loses sensitivity as it is forced to become an external organ that must weather constant chafing from clothes? The glans of an intact penis is much like the inside of the cheek.
Circumcision can lead to complications including infection, excessive blood loss, adhesions, excessive skin removal, buried penis, meatal stenosis, skin bridges, amputation of glans, necrosis, PTSD, scarring, bent penis, painful erections/intercourse, impotence, and death? It can also interfere with the sexual partner’s experience by causing pain, dryness, and difficulty reaching orgasm.
There is an aftermarket for neonatal foreskin?
The majority (approximately 80%) of the world’s men are intact?
The U.S. and Israel are the only two countries in the world where the majority of male infants are circumcised? (In some countries, including Muslim ones, circumcision occurs during childhood.)
The rate of circumcision in the U.S. is declining as almost 50% of babies are now kept intact?
Since 1997 females have been protected by U.S. law from forced circumcision?
The female genital mutilation we abhor in other countries is ethically no different from male circumcision in the U.S.?
No major medical association in the world recommends circumcision? Some take a neutral stance while others come out against it.
The intact penis is not difficult to clean (just wipe like it’s a finger) or prone to infection or gross or smelly?
Many men are not happy about being circumcised; many circumcised men keep their sons intact; many Jewish and Muslim families keep their sons intact; and many families have circumcised older sons before learning the truth and keeping younger ones intact?
As a doula it would be irresponsible of me to suggest that smoking is a valid choice for you and your baby. In light of the information above, the same can be said of circumcision.
For more information please read:
And visit the Circumcision Decision Maker.
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